Cures not cuts: protect medical research for children's health

Rest in peace, little Elliot- who was only a few weeks younger than Big Bro when he died from a brain tumour in February.

"Without medical research there is no hope for the families of sick children."

This weekend I am grateful for... humour

This week has been busy in the research world, and not finding cures- trying to get the government to listen. Rallies and all! And work itself has been hectic. When things are hard in the office, I love that release when suddenly it all gets too much and we collapse into giggles. Maybe that's how these reseachers felt at the prospect of losing their jobs? (One is my friend.)

So this weekend, inspired by Maxabella, I'm grateful for humour.

Learning about... medical research funding

I took the boys down to the Melbourne Rally for Research today, and tweeted in the twitter version at the same time. It was pretty exhilarating. We stood with 3 ladies who'd come down from the country, a KPMG health economist and a heart transplant recipient- and 4000 other supporters of research.

Big Bro had, unprompted, been talking about his version of the issue at Kinder on Monday- "Big Julia needs to STOP and start respecting doctors who want to make sick people better"- so much so that the teacher asked me for more information! She also asked me to discuss the rally with him in terms of "togetherness", a topic that they're starting to cover as a class. It was an interesting thinking point for me, too- the togetherness of researchers, clinicians, patients and patients' friends and families.

There has been a heap of coverage today about the issue of why medical research needs funding by the Australian government. The whole issue was addressed pretty well in this piece from 7pm project (which I have never actually watched in person, 7pm being prime bed-preparation time); it's from about 3-7 minutes (unless you want to see the QLD infomercial!)

Discoveries Need Dollars: don't cut the cures.

This Weekend I am grateful for... playdates

This week my Maxabella-inspired Grateful post is for that wonderful currency of parents- the unaccompanied playdate. We've just started them this year, and that whole "it takes a village" mentality of sharing the occasional kindy pickup has been fantastic, both as dumper and host. One child down on Thursday, and when Little Bro took a nap I slept. And when Little Friends come here, they nick off to Big Bro's room and apart from the occasional update on where "dads and babies" is up to (we've sung six songs and the baby won't sleep) I feel like I'm juggling half a child less. Long live the playdate!

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On a separate note relevant to a previous Grateful post, the medical research funding cuts were on the news tonight. Still on :( There are rallies in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Twitter on Tuesday at 1-2pm AEST (12-2 for Twitter). If you're around any of those then, why not make some noise for a healthy future for your family?

Image: http://giovanniworld.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/iou.jpg

If you'd had breast cancer, would you want the government to help you?

So it's real: the Federal Government thinks that "ordinary Australians" won't care if 1600 medical research jobs are cut, research programs are terminated and clinical trials of lifesaving treatments are cancelled.

I bet ordinary Australians would care if medical research had helped their family survive a five generation history of breast cancer.

Discoveries Need Dollars. Protect Medical Research.